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Irish Newspaper Bulks

The issue of “Bulk Sales” is being feverously discussed across the pond due to some six national titles having to revise their monthly circulation figures downwards. This happened when the ABC noticed that the claimed bulk figures for the titles were higher than the the actual – you can read more in the Media Guardian on the topic.

But what’s the level of bulks here and who uses them? The answer is a little difficult as the reporting of circulation figures for the those who (kindly enough) release monthly data differs slightly from those who report six monthly. The only level ground between the two reports is that they all report the number of copies that they sell at the “basic cover price”, so that’s what I used as a comparison.

The gap between the Average Net per issue and copies sold at BCP is made up primarily of bulks, but also includes newstrade at below BCP, issue specific bulks and copies sold outside the Republic and the UK. Some papers have a much larger subscription base than others and that has a tendency to distort the picture slightly.

But for a quick analysis the table below gives an indication of the usage of bulks. The copies that are below BCP are ones that are usually found cluttering up the reception areas of hotels etc. The circulation breakdown shows where these copies end up – airlines and hotels being the big recipients.

Title

Circ

@BCP

% @ BCP

Irish Independent

152,204

127,992

15.9%

Irish Times

114,488

100,714

12.0%

Examiner

50,346

49,281

2.1%

Daily Mirror

64,997

64,997

0.0%

Daily Record

2,332

2,332

0.0%

Daily Star

100,112

99,837

0.3%

The Sun

96,448

96,448

0.0%

Daily Express

3,706

3,706

0.0%

Daily Mail

48,714

48,204

1.0%

The Daily Telegraph

3,273

3,273

0.0%

Financial Times

3,684

3,394

7.9%

The Guardian

4,371

4,246

2.9%

The Independent

1,487

1,487

0.0%

The Times

3,023

3,023

0.0%

Total

649,185

608,934

6.2%

Evening Herald

71,187

65,633

7.8%

Echo

24,192

24,032

0.7%

Total

95,379

89,665

6.0%

Sunday Independent

272,174

249,409

8.4%

Sunday World

277,504

276,806

0.3%

Sunday Tribune

65,727

56,740

13.7%

Sunday Business Post

57,783

57,320

0.8%

Daily Star – Sunday

57,245

51,863

9.4%

News of the World

136,916

136,916

0.0%

Sunday Mail

6,698

6,698

0.0%

Sunday Mirror

41,724

41,724

0.0%

The People

23,527

23,527

0.0%

Sunday Express

5,134

5,134

0.0%

Sunday Post

942

942

0.0%

The Mail on Sunday

101,031

100,511

0.5%

Independent on Sunday

1,963

1,963

0.0%

The Observer

9,762

9,736

0.3%

The Sunday Telegraph

2,773

2,773

0.0%

The Sunday Times

111,584

111,584

0.0%

Total

1,172,487

1,133,646

3.3%

Market Total

3,834,102

3,664,490

4.4%

Some papers have a huge reliance on bulks. Of the 152,204 copies claimed as circulation, the Irish Independent had 17,905 (12%) as regular bulks and 3,858 (2.5%) at newstrade but below BCP (subscriptions?).